Delving into the Land of Skyrim

I’ve spent a few days now playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and roaming the grand landscape of Skyrim. Over the course of those days, I’ve rescued a city from a dragon attack, aided mages in a magical excavation, joined the College of Winterhold, Skyrim’s version of the Mage’s Guild and explored an ancient ruin or too. However, in a game like this it is but a mere glance at the enormous amount of content that the game has to offer. All the same, every accomplishment only fuels my desire to play further and see what else Skyrim has in store as well as allowing me an opportunity to enhance my skills.

I’m so happy to see this game live up to the hype. The Bethesda team has responded to every concern that gamers had with Oblivion and then some. In particular the new leveling system is a great improvement over the last game. Players now have more freedom in developing their skills and the type of character they want to play, due to the way that the improvement of any skill now helps the character increase their level. Not only that, but the system has also been simplified and streamlined. The main attributes have been shrunk down to three: Stamina, Magicka and Health. A few skills have been dropped or modified with some new ones added. In particular, the skills of Acrobatics and Athletics have been eliminated due to their minimal effect on actual gameplay and certain skills such as Mysticism have been melded into previously existing skills to help trim the fat off the leveling system.

There are also great improvements about the variety in the game, from the numerous dungeons and exotic locales to the NPCs themselves which now feature a wider range of voices and even include children. This wider assortment of cast members gives Skyrim depth and realism that pulls you further into the game.

However Skyrim isn’t so much about telling a great story as much as it is about creating your own story of grand adventure. That is what I think has made the Elder Scrolls series such a popular and powerful RPG franchise. The ability to carve your place in a fantasy world that is akin to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series is role-playing fun at its best.

To that end, I plan on spending a good long time exploring Skyrim and familiarizing myself with every nook and cranny of the expansive world that Bethesda has put before us.

Thanks Bri! I don’t know when the next write-up will be. I still have a great deal of exploring to do in the land of Skyrim. I recently gave my Xbox copy to my younger brother, because I bought the PC version. I’ve started streaming my Skyrim playthrough on my Livestream account: http://bit.ly/rX1N31 Be sure to tune in on weekends to check it out! I’ll be posting on Twitter and Facebook ahead of time.

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